Day 48: Guided By Voices - Motivational Jumpsuit

Artist:   Guided By Voices
Album:  Motivational Jumpsuit
Source:  http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/arts/music/pressplay.html?state=-1&_r=0

Pre-listening Notes:  Guided By Voices are a band that puts out like a billion songs in their career and while the songs range from genius to meh, they have been a pretty consistent indie rock band.  This is their 20th album in 27 years.  However, they took an 8 year hiatus and there is also the solo albums (Robert Pollard has 20 of his own) and Tobin Sprout between solo and other bands has another 10, or so.  It's insane how much music these guys have put out.  So, I poured myself a drink and I'm ready to go on this.     

Initial Reaction:  The band excels at writing short, simple, catchy as all hell songs.  The opening track is a quick hitter (a minute, eighteen seconds long), called Littlest League Possible.  It's got cool guitars, a catchy hook, and is a decent opener.

Random Thoughts:  The second song slows it down a little, but it's still a quick catchy tune.  Then a song humorously called Writer's Bloc.  There is no way these guys have ever had writer's block.  This is the first song that I didn't really dig on the hook.  Also, it's one of the longest songs on the record.  The next song is another down tempo song that is lacking on the catchiness.  And I start reading an article while listening and four songs fly by.  That's what you can expect from a GBV album.  I really like Save the Company, it has a feel to it that reminds me of some '60's rock.  I also like I am Columbus for a similar reason, there are some great tracks on this.  Difficult Outburst and Breakthrough had a more modern sound to it, but was catchy and pretty great too.  Vote For Me Dummy is another super catchy, awesome track.  The album seems to grab my attention either every other or occasionally every third song. 

Final Reaction:  Overall, this is pretty decent.  Giving a Guided By Voices album a listen is pretty much knowing going in that you are going to love some songs and not love others.  It's just a question of the ratio.  In this case of the 20 songs, I would estimate I liked 14 of them, therefor giving this album a 7 out of 10 ratio.     

Final Grade:  7.0/10